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60th out of 109 books
—
102 voters
Double Whammy
by
Carl Hiaasen
R.J. Decker, star tenant of the local trailer park and neophyte private eye is fishing for a killer. Thanks to a sportsman's scam that's anything but sportsmanlike, there's a body floating in Coon Bog, Florida -- and a lot that's rotten in the murky waters of big-stakes, large-mouth bass tournaments. Here Decker will team up with a half-blind, half-mad hermit with an appet...more
Paperback, 404 pages
Published
March 1st 2005
by Grand Central Publishing
(first published 1987)
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As he pushed past the screen door, Decker was amazed by what he saw: books. Every wall had raw pine shelves to the ceiling, and every shelf was lined with books. The east wall was for classic fiction: Poe, Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, Jack London, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, even Boris Pasternak. The west wall for political biographies: Churchill, Sandburg’s Lincoln, Hitler, Huey Long, Eisenhower, Joseph McCarthy, John F. Kennedy, even Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson, though it looked like a book-...more
As an avid fisherman and native Floridian this was a great read! Hiaasen created one of the most memorable characters in Skink the former Gov and a whole cast that only he could put together. There are some scenes that he describes that had me crying with laughter. Anyone who likes fishing and/or Florida and/or laughing and/or fun needs to read this book. I would imagine that everyone should have a copy of Double Whammy on their shelf.
5 likes · like · see review
This is officially the Hiaasen book that has proved his genius to me. Never in my wildest imagination would I have guessed that I would not only read a book about bass fishing, but that I would also enjoy it. This book, bass and all, was a hysterically funny who-done-it of the highest caliber. Pro-Sports fishermen are dropping dead, a renegade photographer/PI has been hired to prove there are cheaters in the Bass Tournaments, a loveable crazy hermit turns out to be more than meets the eye. This...more
Jan 29, 2008
Kim
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who loves mysteries and comedy.
Shelves:
myspace-books
After finishing Basket Case and being somewhat disappointed with the lack of hysterics, Double Whammy has restored my hopes of finding great laughs with some new insights in a Carl Hiaasen book. Dealing with the subject of a murder tied to possible bass fishing cheating, Hiaasen's book features a few familiar faces again, namely Skink and (one of my favs) Jim Tile. He also introduces the formerly Jewish minister Reverand Weebs and one seriously cocky bass fisherman with his own Christian fishing...more
Dear Carl Hiaasen,
I talked to my hubs & forced him to read this book (he's not much of a reader, but he's totally hot anyway).
He has given me his word that if you agree to father one of my babies (after reading this book), he can ask me to get him a beer (without protest!) at any time of the day or night (like even if I am fast asleep & he has to nudge me awake).
This novel is hysterical. Try not to read it on a plane, next to someone who's sleeping if you sometimes snort or gasp for ai...more
I talked to my hubs & forced him to read this book (he's not much of a reader, but he's totally hot anyway).
He has given me his word that if you agree to father one of my babies (after reading this book), he can ask me to get him a beer (without protest!) at any time of the day or night (like even if I am fast asleep & he has to nudge me awake).
This novel is hysterical. Try not to read it on a plane, next to someone who's sleeping if you sometimes snort or gasp for ai...more
I'd saved this library-sale paperback for a proverbial rainy day -- and so when I came down with my inevitable fall cold, I patted myself on the back for having just the right thing to distract me from sneezing and sniffling. Hiaasen has long been a favorite of mine; his jaundiced view of modern America (more specifially, Florida) dovetails with mine, not to mention his somewhat perverse sense of humor.
Certain things you'll always find in a Carl Hiaasen novel:
- a likeable, down-on-his-luck hero...more
Certain things you'll always find in a Carl Hiaasen novel:
- a likeable, down-on-his-luck hero...more
Hot-headed private detective R. J. Decker is hired to prove that TV host Dickie Lockhart cheats to win fortunes in Florida bass-fishing tournaments. Decker soon finds out that the stakes are so high people are willing to kill to keep secrets, but he finds an ally in an apparently deranged, roadkill-eating hermit who calls himself Skink, as well as a couple of honest cops. Adding to the cast are a trio of moron hillbillies, an amoral hottie who seduces Decker and helps frame him for murder, and t...more
What a fun story. RJ Decker is a photographer/private investigator whose client is Dennis Gault, a tycoon wannabe pro-bass fisherman. Dennis hired RJ to photograph cheaters in the bass tournaments which he hoped would give him an edge in winning a tournament. Bobby Clinch is the man who is having an affair with Dennis' sister Laine. He was found dead in Coon Bog, Florida. Then, the local newspaper man, Ott Pickney, who happens to be an old acquaintance of RJ mysteriously disappeared and thought...more
Hiaasen tackles the high-stakes world of tournament bass fishing in this romp through Harney County, Florida. RJ Decker is a photographer-turned-PI who gets hired by rich brat Dennis Gault to catch TV bass-fishing star Dickie Lockhart in the act of cheating during a tournament. Meanwhile, avid bass fisherman Bobby Clinch winds up dead, leaving behind a relieved widow and orange Corvette-driving girlfriend, Lanie Gault, Dennis Gault’s sleazy sister. When Dickie Lockhart is found floating in a fis...more
[7/10]
My second Carl Hiaasen book. After Stormy Weather I decided I want to delve more into the background of Captain Skink, the most interesting character in the book, so I went back to his debut in Double Whammy . I ended up learning more about bayou fishing than I thought possible given my near total lack of interest in the sport. I hold Hiaasen responsible for tranforming this placid and frankly boring pastime into a frenzied and deadly chase (I imagine the trailer for the book with a so...more
My second Carl Hiaasen book. After Stormy Weather I decided I want to delve more into the background of Captain Skink, the most interesting character in the book, so I went back to his debut in Double Whammy . I ended up learning more about bayou fishing than I thought possible given my near total lack of interest in the sport. I hold Hiaasen responsible for tranforming this placid and frankly boring pastime into a frenzied and deadly chase (I imagine the trailer for the book with a so...more
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Funniest book I've read in a long time. I'd say you'll never look at bass fishing the same way again, but I don't know anybody who looks at bass fishing. Suffice to say that you'll never look at pet ownership the same way again. This is hard-core satire with teeth (think Swift's "A Modest Proposal"). Once it gets the bite on you the book won't let go. You might even find yourself walking around with it, talking to it. God help you.
I never thought I would really care about bass tournament fishing, but for the past week or so I was so very involved in Carl Hiaasen's fictious bass tournaments that I almost thought I was a fisherman myself.
Very typical of his other books, Hiaasen has a strange cast of characters and a story line that deals with some kind of environmental topic that involves the Florida Everglades. In this novel we meet R. J. Decker, a former newspaper photographer turned private detective, who has been hired...more
Very typical of his other books, Hiaasen has a strange cast of characters and a story line that deals with some kind of environmental topic that involves the Florida Everglades. In this novel we meet R. J. Decker, a former newspaper photographer turned private detective, who has been hired...more
Jul 24, 2009
Yvensong
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Hiaasen fans
Shelves:
bookcrossing
I've read a few other books by Hiaasen, and really liked them. This one was a little less enjoyable for me because I couldn't build any interest up in the bass-fishing aspect of the novel.
One of my favorite characters, Skink, kept me interested as well the detective-noir aspect. This is the novel which introduces Skink, who subsequently appears in several other Hiaasen novels.
The main character, Decker, is your classic P.I. with a questionable history; and in steps the femme fatale, who will eit...more
One of my favorite characters, Skink, kept me interested as well the detective-noir aspect. This is the novel which introduces Skink, who subsequently appears in several other Hiaasen novels.
The main character, Decker, is your classic P.I. with a questionable history; and in steps the femme fatale, who will eit...more
1 like · like · see review
This is my favourite of all the Carl Hiaasen books. Don't get me wrong I love all of them for their absurdly dark humour, but reading them in a row you tend to get bogged down with going 'Really?' The main characters have a semi tortured ex newspaper man/'I hate the world and will prove to the big guys how much I hate them' feel. Which is good if read with some space between the books.
However Double Whammy will always be my favourite. Anyone who can make Bass fishing tournaments full of intrigu...more
However Double Whammy will always be my favourite. Anyone who can make Bass fishing tournaments full of intrigu...more
Hiassen is a funny, funny guy. His books are great for light, entertaining vacation reads. And "Double Whammy" has one of my favorite characters in it: Skink, a hairy wild man who has no qualms living off fresh Florida roadkill. These are fast-paced, witty detective stories with a bunch of Florida-specific humor. Good times.
Carl Hiaasen's works are usually very funny, intelligent, witty, creative, with a happy ending. What could you want more from an entertaining lite read? The imaginative characters, the adventure, the great use of irony and sarcasm, he keeps you guessing how things could possibly all work out for the best, and they do in his books which I like. I always find good qualities to admire in his heros, and can easily despise the villians, cheering when they meet their demise...in whatever creative fash...more
If you haven't read Carl Hiaason's series of wildly funny stories about a group of outrageous characters in Florida, start here.
Double Whammy introduces two ongoing characters, R.J. Decker, a former news photographer who lives in a rundown trailer park and Skink, a one-eyed hermit living in a shack at the edge of the Everglades. Decker seems normal next to Skink, who eats roadkill, has a TV star smile, and doesn't tolerate anyone who damages the environment.
Both Decker and Skink collect other od...more
Double Whammy introduces two ongoing characters, R.J. Decker, a former news photographer who lives in a rundown trailer park and Skink, a one-eyed hermit living in a shack at the edge of the Everglades. Decker seems normal next to Skink, who eats roadkill, has a TV star smile, and doesn't tolerate anyone who damages the environment.
Both Decker and Skink collect other od...more
Angry Eighties Carl Hiaasen is the best!
I moved to Florida in the late eighties, so reading these books is like a trip down memory lane. The thing is, I was too young to note all that was happening around me that Hiaasen references - so the book also serves as a fictionally based history lesson.
Also, I don't fish - but anyone in Florida knows that you don't speak ill of the sport. Not just an industry, fishing is the De facto past time for a large number of my neighbors who live on or near the b...more
I moved to Florida in the late eighties, so reading these books is like a trip down memory lane. The thing is, I was too young to note all that was happening around me that Hiaasen references - so the book also serves as a fictionally based history lesson.
Also, I don't fish - but anyone in Florida knows that you don't speak ill of the sport. Not just an industry, fishing is the De facto past time for a large number of my neighbors who live on or near the b...more
I've read these other books by Carl Hassen and really enjoy his cast of characters. His cartoonish personalities and the Captain(Skink) make for a mixing bowl with tantilizing results.
In this earlier work, 1987, I get a sense of where the Captian came from and what make Jim Tile and Al Garcia such a unlikely comic duo that adds just the right mixture of sarcasm and bravado to RJ Decker's twisted tale.
I can't name one tale by Haasen that's not a little twisted. If you are in any way disturbed by...more
In this earlier work, 1987, I get a sense of where the Captian came from and what make Jim Tile and Al Garcia such a unlikely comic duo that adds just the right mixture of sarcasm and bravado to RJ Decker's twisted tale.
I can't name one tale by Haasen that's not a little twisted. If you are in any way disturbed by...more
I love Hiaasen and find him to be hilarious, but this is not one of his better works. Lucky You is the best one.
OK. This is classic Hiaasen...or maybe even better than classic Hiassen. It's got everything: crooked bass fishermen, honest bass fishermen, a crazy preacher complete with his own mega-church, cable network, and largest bass tournament ever, dumb rednecks, smart rednecks, vicious rednecks, good rednecks, good cops, bad cops, and, if that weren't enough, there's even the kitchen sink. (Actually it's a bathroom sink, but why split hairs?)
If you are a bass fisherman, know a bass fisherman, or ever...more
If you are a bass fisherman, know a bass fisherman, or ever...more
Apr 24, 2010
Trixie Fontaine
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2010-consumption,
outside
SO GLAD I found & picked this out of a free box on the sidewalk. Massively entertaining . . . nearly perfect! Some stuff is dated (ex. you can't go around using credit cards to pay for hotels and car rentals now without getting caught by the law pretty much instantly) but I loved reading this, really cared about the characters, and there were even environmental issues that matter! Interesting this was the first book set in Florida I picked up since The Orchid Thief . . . it might have made m...more
Jul 29, 2011
Adam Haan
added it
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Maybe that’s because the whole thing centers on fishing, and I’ve fished a total of 4 times in my life. It’s about big time bass tournaments in Florida and cheating, corruption and murder. The main character is a photographer turned detective, and there is a TV preacher with a lot of bad luck. About the only thing that made this book worthwhile for me was the smart yet half-crazy character Skink, who has a very interesting past. Although thi...more
An early book in Hiaasen's cannon, it introduces Skink, a wonderful character that makes many great cameo apperances in future books. In Double Whammy, Skink plays a central role and it seems to be a bit taxing for him. Hiaasen's books generally provide a scathingly witty look at Florida politics and pundits and the horendous things that they have been able to get away with in the Sunshine state. This novel starts that tradition and proves that sometimes, the bad guys do get what is coming to th...more
Carl Hiaasen rounds up the normal Florida suspects for another romp.
Among the adventurers we find: bass fishing bubbas, Jesus for cash, TV evangelists, a one eyed connoisseur of road kill, Queenie, a thirty pound bass with attitude, a very determined pit bull and one or two homicidal bubbas lacking intelligence.
Throw in - a condominium project, toxic water, fried catfish, beer, some fast boats and an occasional fast woman, and before you know it, you got yourself the makings of a very fine part...more
Among the adventurers we find: bass fishing bubbas, Jesus for cash, TV evangelists, a one eyed connoisseur of road kill, Queenie, a thirty pound bass with attitude, a very determined pit bull and one or two homicidal bubbas lacking intelligence.
Throw in - a condominium project, toxic water, fried catfish, beer, some fast boats and an occasional fast woman, and before you know it, you got yourself the makings of a very fine part...more
The story tells about a photographer turned private detective called R J Decker, who is hired to find evidence of cheating at bass fishing tournaments. At first, I wasn't so keen on the storyline. But as the story unfolds, you get drawn in as you meet with mostly offbeat, bizarre characters, and you slowly connect with them as the author provides back stories to these personalities. There's the usual twists and turns in the plot; I expected it to be a whodunnit kind of story with the culprit rev...more
it's hard to find a book with an environmental message that is SUBTLE. when it comes to passing along a message, though, carl hiaasen takes the cake. government corruption, poorly prioritized environmental protection, red necks, and racism- hiaasen manages to criticize and satirize it all with, of all things possible, BASS FISHING.
you don't need to be an avid fisherman to enjoy this extremely fast-paced murder mystery. what are you waiting for? hurry up and read it before this book becomes the o...more
you don't need to be an avid fisherman to enjoy this extremely fast-paced murder mystery. what are you waiting for? hurry up and read it before this book becomes the o...more
Carl Hiaasen has picked up where John D. McDonald left off on writing about Florida. He writes about criminals and environmental issues. He writes well. However, his Florida novels (like Elmore Leonard's crime novels) don't appeal to me as much as William Kent Krueger's crime novels. Krueger weaves in Native American angles and his characters have more family connections and concerns. Plus, Krueger's nothern Minnesota settings make a deeper connection in me than Florida. I'll leave Hiaasen for t...more
3.5 Stars
Well, going into this book, as much as I love Carl Hiaasen’s quirky characters, I just didn’t see how he was going to get me to want to read a book about Bass fishing. Even my mad love for Skink and his damn shower cap,(I have had many hot wet dreams about him and that shower cap), wasn’t going to keep my interest. But of course I was wrong. I mean the first 1/3 of the book was getting the mechanics down on profession bass fishing tournaments, but once you threw in a couple of murders,...more
Well, going into this book, as much as I love Carl Hiaasen’s quirky characters, I just didn’t see how he was going to get me to want to read a book about Bass fishing. Even my mad love for Skink and his damn shower cap,(I have had many hot wet dreams about him and that shower cap), wasn’t going to keep my interest. But of course I was wrong. I mean the first 1/3 of the book was getting the mechanics down on profession bass fishing tournaments, but once you threw in a couple of murders,...more
1 like · like · see review
Eh, Hiaasen's one of my favorite crime writers but this book is simply not in his top tier. The fact of the matter is for most of it's length it doesn't feel like a Hiaasen book, the character's and main mystery simply aren't that interesting (with one exception that I'll get to later) and the muckraking spirit and cockeyed humor that makes his books so special are absent for most of the text. Popping up in the first 300 pages only when the sociopathic "Rev." Charles Weeb is on the scene. A prea...more
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| Very entertaining! | 1 | 14 | Dec 08, 2008 04:54pm |
Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in Florida, where he still lives with his family. After graduating from the University of Florida, he began writing for the Miami Herald. As a journalist and author, Carl has spend most of his life advocating the protection of the Florida Everglades. He and his family still live southern Florida.
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“You from the IRS? The man's voice was deep and wet, like mud slipping down a drain.”
—
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Yeah Skink in the novel is snagging critter...more
Jun 04, 2013 06:31am
Sounds like I should prioriti...more
Jun 04, 2013 07:08am